As long as money has dominated the global economy, people from countries that lack it have been trying to find new lives for themselves in countries that have it. For just as long, the citizens of the countries who have it have tried to maintain the global status quo. Between the generally poor-rich relationship of Africa and Europe, and the recent string of revolutions in the North-African Arab nations, a large and desperate wave of immigration is hitting Europe.
The reality of the situation was exemplified on Monday when Italian officials found 25 dead bodies aboard a boat full of African immigrants. The men asphyxiated in the engine room when they were trapped there by the sheer number of people crammed into the rest of the boat, preventing their escape through a narrow entry hatch. Many of the Africans in this new wave of immigration are in fact refugees from the power struggles sweeping through the Arab states in Africa. Somewhat strangely, even a large number of the refugees are sub-Saharan Africans who went North in search of work. It has been argued that many of these are forced refugees, fulfilling Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi’s threat to flood Europe with unwanted immigrants.
In many ways, the situation facing Italy is similar to that recently (and still) facing Arizona. While both places are traditional “hotbeds” of immigration, they are both somewhat secondary to larger immigration epicenters: Arizona to California and Texas, and Italy to Spain and Greece. While Arizona may be as easily accessible from Mexico as Texas and California, according to Censusscope.org Arizona actually has a much less dense Latin American population than any other state bordering Mexico. Similarly, while Italy is a convenient landing from Africa, most immigrants from Africa traditionally chose to enter Europe through formerly Arab-dominated southern Spain or by land entering Greece via Turkey. Now, however, whether the scales are actually tipping the other way or it merely appears as such, Arizonians and Italians seem to be facing what they perceive as an immigration crisis.
What is also true of both Italy and Arizona is that many people, especially politicians, see the immigrant peoples as a threat. This makes them unwanted. In Italy, one need really not look much further than the nickname given the immigrants. They are called “clandestine,” a word which means many things, including illegal, underground, and stealthy, and the immigrants are just that (even the legal ones). Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is not opposed to the occasional third-world immigrant helping his AC Milan soccer team win trophies (Berlusconi is the owner of the Italian and European heavyweights), tries his best to help the immigrants move right on through Italy and up into France where they are no longer a “burden” on his state. France, where all men were elevated to equality after the French Revolution (except of course Haitians and other non-whites under French control), does not want them either. In the US, Arizona went so far to alienate (the irony of that word is not lost on the author) the immigrants as to require that anyone who appears illegal can be stopped and required to show identification to avoid arrest.
Both Arizona and Italy are feeling left to fight what they perceive as the “immigration battle” alone. Arizona has taken immigration laws further than the United States has yet dared, feeling that the national laws are not enough to meet Arizona’s needs. Italy feels it is suffering from similarly middle-of-the-road immigration policy throughout the European Union.
In both Italy and Arizona, there is a conflict between two very different forms of survival. In the developed world, survival is measured in terms of economic growth and development. In the developing world, places like Mexico and Africa, survival very much means keeping you and your family alive in the modern world. When this conflict occurs, tempers flare, voters get split across sharp lines, and one side tries to maintain the status quo while the other touts the ideals of a united humanity. Which side will win, which side is a more practical view of the world, and will one side be both of those? These are all questions for politicians to decide, but for everyone to ponder. The next step is figuring out a way to keep the market-controlled developed world afloat in a world of numbers while also keeping the people of the developing world alive and thriving in a world where war, starvation, and making deadly travels to new lands are the present, and not the past. The question is, what will that step look like?
Sources
- "EU Migrants: Lampedusa Italy Now Main Entry Point." BBC News, BBC.com. June 14, 2011.
- Hewitt, Gavin. "Italy is Rocky Shore for Europe's Boat People." BBC News, BBC.com. July 11, 2011.
- "Italian Coastguards Have Found 25 Bodies on Boat at Lampedusa." BBC News, BBC.com. August 1, 2011.
